Hiring a Freelance Graphics Person

Question

Say I'm a one-person programming shop, and I need to get some graphics for an application: icons, backgrounds, etc.

What are some of the things I need to know before I hire someone to do that stuff for me? How have some of you been burned when doing something similar?

Answer 1

• You should definitely ask for copies of finished work in a vector form, so you can tweak it yourself or take it on to another designer.
• You need to make your brief as clear as possible in terms of what you want, but try to think in terms of goals rather than specific design elements (you're paying them to be creative, see what they come up with)
• Obviously you'll want to look at a portfolio and get an idea of someone's style before committing to anything.
• Don't fall into the whole sunk cost fallacy thing - If you get started and someone's not working out, pay them what you owe and move on.

Answer 2

The most irritating thing for me as a developer is when the graphic designers do not know how to present the graphics to me in a useable format. I often spend lots of time chopping up their images or doing conversions and rotations in Gimp, because they cannot understand how to splice images. It is so frustrating. They might have great talent, but if they have not had experience in splicing, web development or UI design, I'd rather either do it myself, or keep on looking.

Answer 3

There are places online where you can hire on freelance graphics people for very limited jobs on the cheap. For example, worth1000.com has a section where you can sponsor a contest for graphics for your project. For a hundred bucks you could get a logo and related designs. Its a NSA kind of thing, so you don't have to worry about dealing with anybody after the contest is over...

Answer 4

In addition to what others have said...

• Freelance graphics people get ripped off frequently. Don't take it personally if their approach to invoicing is more 'prudent' or cautious than you might be used to dealing with.

(A recent article on Boing Boing reminded me of this thread. A brief worthy entertaining read: Please design a logo for me. With pie charts. For free.)

Answer 5

I think a good approach is is getting feedback from other jobs, and hiring someone that wsa recommended from someone.

You can hire this kind of work online via outsourcing sites (My preference being oDesk where you can navigate through feedbacks, portfolios and have a great deal of info before hiring someone (and oDesk also have ways to secure jobs and payments, what is a plus)

Another great place to look for designs, if you need logos, visual identity or things like that is the 99designs website. You can launch a contest (Logo fo my startup kind of contest) and offer what you find fair to the winner. So in a couple weeks you will have a lot of designs to choose from, and the designer your choose get the prize.

Good luck hiring!

Answer 6

You should pay attention on whether the graphic designer candidate is an expert in print graphics or stuff on the screen. I've seen designers that design great milk cartons but just simply awful website layouts. Apart from that, it's of course a matter of taste; if you like the designer's work or not.

Then there are the basic terms that apply to seeking resources (hiring new employees or consultants), but one of the most important ones here is whether the designer is likely to get things done. This is because graphic design is a creative job and relies highly on inspiration and motivation.

This is of course hard to find out if you don't actually know the person in question, but a good basic principle is to hire some one who actually does this for his living. I've found myself struggling with brilliant amateur artists that just can't get anything done, 'cause it's all time spent away from their own hobby projects. Professional graphic designers are more likely to find the time to get into the zone for Your assignment.